Kettering University’s Collegiate DECA team won three awards at the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference in Washington D.C. in April.

The competition included more than 2,000 students from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. At the conference, students took exams, solved current and practical business case study problems, wrote business plans and role-played with industry judges.

Anastasia Bubin, Allison Putnam and Jacob Sherwood received second place in the Advertising Campaign category. Thomas Swanson received third place in the Growing a Small Business category. Brittany Parkhurst received an honorable mention in the Human Resource Management category.

Anastasia Bubin, Allison Putnam and Jacob Sherwood received second place in the Advertising Campaign category.

“Kettering University students are well-prepared for DECA competitions because the skills necessary to excel are the same types of hands-on, applied concepts that they are learning in classrooms and in their co-op placements,” said Karen Cayo, Interim Department of Business department head and DECA faculty advisor. “Our group of students once again proved they are among the best in the country among their peers in DECA competitions.”

The performance at the international conference follows a strong showing in the Collegiate DECA State Career Development Conference in Michigan in February. Ten Kettering students won 16 awards in that competition.

Swanson won first place in Growing a Small Business. Michael Woznicki won first place in Retail Management and second place in Marketing Management. Parkhurst won second place in Retail Management and third place in Human Resource Management. Bubin, Putnam and Sherwood won third place in Advertising Campaign. Ashlea Reiter and Michael Roethemeyer won third place in Entrepreneurship - Starting Your Own Business.

Honorable mentions were Bubin (Fashion Merchandising and Marketing); Alan Doucette (Retail Management and Marketing Management); Chelcee Lawrence (Restaurant and Food Service Management and Marketing Management); Roethemeyer (Hotel and Lodging Management); Sherwood (Executive Job Interview and Accounting) and Swanson (Banking Financial Services).

Collegiate DECA is a student-oriented organization focused on developing future business leaders. The four cornerstones of DECA are career awareness, civic consciousness, social intelligence and leadership development with competitive events in Business, Design, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Accounting, Foodservice and Culinary, Hospitality and Travel, Information Technology, Management, and Marketing and Sales. Besides the yearly State and International Career Development Conferences in the spring, Collegiate DECA also sponsors a yearly Leadership Conference in the fall.

Collegiate DECA is open to all Kettering students. To find out more about the two chapters, contact Karen Cayo (kcayo@kettering.edu).